25 years ago, no one expected a little side project from the bassist and drummer of art-rock/New Wave combo Talking Heads to be much of a hit, much less become…
Lost in the ’80s
264 Articles
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
A funny thing happened to Todd Rundgren in the ’80s – his commercial solo work get progressively more experimental and inaccessible, while Utopia, formerly his outlet for his more prog-rock,…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
And now, here’s Anthony Geary, TV’s Luke from General Hospital, with a message from our sponsor:
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Oh, Livvie. Talk about misguided choices. Nearly an unstoppable pop juggernaut as the ’80s dawned, thanks to hits from Xanadu and Physical, Olivia Newton-John stumbled a bit as the decade…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Here’s one that someone requested in the comments section waaaaaaaayyy back, but I held out, trying to scrape together some more info about it. No luck. This one’s a bit…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Dave Edmunds took a few years off between hits. Like, 12 of them. Rockabilly fueled guitar twanger Edmunds hit the Top 5 in 1971 with his cover of “I Hear…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Before they found multi-platinum success with The Raw & The Cooked and its smash singles “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing”, the Fine Young Cannibals took their post-English Beat…
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
Á¢€¢ Their debut album featured a #1 smash, the video of which won eight MTV Video Awards.Á¢€¢ It eventually sold eight million copies worldwide, a million of that in the…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
This one’s funky, nasty, and more than a little creepy. Taking a cue from Rick James and his self-proclaimed mix of “Punk Funk”, jazz percussionist Bill Summers and his group,…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Hopefully everyone has the day off – if not, here’s some commiseration courtesy of actor Bill Paxton and his art-rock/New Wave collective known as Martini Ranch – “How Can The…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Live from the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport Men’s Restroom, it’s Senator Larry Craig’s Dance Machine! “Good evening, everyone. Let’s get this party started with a big favorite where I’m from…The…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
I’ve said it a few times before…don’t get me started gushing about The Human League’s Dare, quite possibly my favorite album of the ’80s. No matter how many times a…
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
The tail end of the ’80s saw a small explosion of female-fronted jangle-pop bands from the UK like The Sundays, Transvision Vamp and The Darling Buds cut a psychedelic, sugary…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
If Disco was dead by 1981, no one bothered to tell Canada. When even the Village People had denied Disco and gone New Romantic by that time, Voggue, a studio…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Hey, did you know Sunday, August 12th is Vinyl Record Day? Me neither, until I was invited by the lovely jb over at The Hits Just Keep On Comin’ to…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Montreal’s Men Without Hats have an unfair reputation as one hit wonders (“Men Without HITS! Har!”), but people tend to forget they had another fair-sized hit in 1987 with “Pop…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Before Hairspray, the musical…before Hairspray, the movie…Harris Glenn Milstead, aka Divine, aka John Waters’ original muse, was best known for eating dog poop. But we’re not here to talk about…
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
No, don’t you dare click to the next blog. Seriously, you’re going to like this one a lot more than you think you will. The quintessential one-hit wonder, Toni Basil…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Stacy Lattisaw was a mere 16 years old in 1983 (the Best Year for Music Ever!) and had already notched two Top 40 hits and a number one Dance Club…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Well, hello there. Nice to see you. What’s that? Lost B-sides Week was last week? I haven’t posted anything since? I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. Ahem….
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
I’m not sure how many of you read my other blog, but you may have missed this post where I linked to a Brain Melting Video of the most…inventive…performance of…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
We just talked about Gene Loves Jezebel recently, so why not feature a Lost B-side from the fey, scarf-twirling duo? While I’ve previously lamented that today’s featured song’s a-side was…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Did you know this is the first time in this humble blog’s two and a half-year history that we’ve featured Culture Club? That’s a bit of a travesty which needs…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
ItÁ¢€â„¢s been some time since we last did this, so weÁ¢€â„¢re about due for another Lost B-sides Week here at LIT80s, arenÁ¢€â„¢t we? All this week, weÁ¢€â„¢ll feature b-sides to…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Breaking out the USB turntable and encoding some odds & ends – thought I’d share! Á¢€¢ Boomtown Rats – “Drag Me Down (U.S. Version): The Rats were the focus of…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Straight outta Austria, Falco (aka Johann “Hans” HÁƒ¶lzel) is best known on these shores for “Rock Me Amadeus”, one of the more deranged hits in a decade filled with strange…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
…to this… Sometimes the easiest ones are the best.
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Chris & Cosey’s single about two cheating lovers on the sly was a pleasant pop surprise/sellout considering their prior musical pedigree as members of the early industrial combo Throbbing Gristle….
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
There’s a memorable quote from the famously awful movie Showgirls where choreographer (I think? The movie never explains what it is he does) Marty Jacobsen describes our heroine’s dancing talent:…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Robert GÁƒ¶rl may be remembered by some as the drummer/keyboardist for German industrial band DAF (short for Deutsch-Amerikanische Fruendschaft or German/American Friendship), but more people may remember him as an…